[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7473-7474]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I, along with the Armenians in Rhode Island 
and throughout the United States, as well as those around the world, 
recognize the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
  On the night of April 24, 1915, nationalists in the Ottoman Empire 
rounded up and executed 200 Armenian community leaders, sparking an 8-
year campaign of tyranny that impacted the lives of every Armenian in 
Asia Minor. By 1923, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were murdered, 
and another 500,000 were exiled.

[[Page 7474]]

  The U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morganthau, Sr., 
unsuccessfully pleaded with President Wilson to act. Morganthau later 
remembered the events of the genocide. ``I am confident that the whole 
history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this,'' 
the Ambassador wrote in his memoir. ``The great massacres and 
persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the 
sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.''
  Unfortunately, the United States, and the world, did not intervene.
  Today, on the 90th Anniversary, I am proud to be one of 32 Senators 
who urged President Bush to refer to the mass murder of Armenians as 
genocide in his commemorative statement. Failing to do so, does not 
properly commemorate this tragedy. Accurate acknowledgment of this 
event in human history is a small, but necessary, step to take.
  Today, dozens of Armenian soldiers are deployed to Iraq, carrying out 
humanitarian operations in Karbala and al-Hilla, working as truck 
drivers, bomb detonators, and doctors. Armenian soldiers are also 
serving in Kosovo, performing peace support operations. I believe their 
response of helping others in need is part of the healing process. 
These Armenians did not allow others to be left as helpless as they 
were generations ago.
  As a Nation, we must respond to acts of oppression to ensure that 
victims of hatred and prejudice did not perish in vain. We must stand 
as witnesses to protect people from persecution for the simple reason 
they are different. Thus, we must be committed to properly remembering 
the Armenian Genocide.
  Menk panav chenk mornar. (We will never forget.)

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